Part One, Chapters 6–9

Humbert reveals the darker side of his personality during
his adult years, which are marked with periods of anger, rage, and
lust. Though Humbert speaks eloquently and persuasively, he is also prone
to volcanic rages and cold, calculating cruelty. For example, his
terrific anger and murderous thoughts upon learning of Valeria’s affair
foreshadow his many instances of violence later in the novel. Also,
Humbert alludes to several nervous breakdowns and bouts of madness.
Though he attributes these breakdowns to melancholia, he does not
describe them in detail, and the reader must wonder what kind of
mental illness Humbert suffers from. Humbert once again dismisses
the practice of psychology by playing games with the psychologists
who analyze him. Yet he will describe himself as a madman numerous
times, and his tenuous grasp on sanity will be tested throughout
the book. Humbert’s tendency toward violence, along with his obsessive
nature, will prove to be his downfall in the novel, and more powerful
forces than his eloquence or his education.

Humbert’s encounters with adult women are often darkly
comic. He enters into both his marriages with coldly rational motives
that have little to do with love or affection. He marries Valeria
because his obsession with nymphets worries him, and he wants to
become a normal man. However, this attempt at normalcy fails, and
he finds both his wives coarse and intellectually inferior. He does
not describe his encounters with Valeria in detail, and the reader
will see later in the novel that he was quite cruel to her. When
Valeria confesses her infidelities in this section, however, Nabokov
infuses the scene with black humor. As Humbert seethes in anger,
Valeria’s taxi driver lover apologizes for his transgression in
bad French and Valeria dissolves into hilariously melodramatic tears
as she packs. The comic action of the scene thwarts Humbert’s attempts
to demand satisfaction, but the sparing of Valeria spares Humbert,
as well. Driven to laughter by the antics of the two lovers, the
reader becomes distracted and shielded from the extremes of Humbert’s rage.
And by not killing his wife, Humbert manages to hold onto the reader’s
sympathy for a while longer.